Friday, December 30, 2016

The Monarchy’s Symbols of Power

Medieval monarchs are remembered as powerful rulers, with a tyrannical control of land, nobles, and riches. They were strong figures, in control of their realm and their lives. However, medieval rulers also existed in a daily display of that power and authority. Even if a king was born into his position, he still needed to maintain that standing among his nobility and his royal peers and that maintenance was through the use of certain symbols and objects.

Archaeology, the study of human activity in the past, provides tangible evidence of intangible concepts like power and control. The archaeology of the Medieval English monarchs is a prime example of how to illuminate the actions and lives of these rulers, and touch the physical expressions of their power and position. Monuments like castles and cathedrals are obvious installations in the landscape, but that power is solidified in the smaller details such as seals, coin portraits, effigies, heraldic devices, expensive cloth, and jewelry.

Monarchs and nobility operated under rules of order accompanied by symbols and rituals. The coronation of a monarch was one very important ritual, but there were many secular and religious transactions which sustained the ruler’s prestige. The objects used in these rituals strengthened the nobility’s position and sustained the ephemeral aura of control.

In The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy, John Steane discusses many of these objects and their function. His description of portraiture is particularly useful, noting trends in the accuracy of the facial modeling, materials, and approximate age of the portrait versus the individual. The gisants, or monumental funeral effigies, were used first in France starting in the 12th century then were adopted into English royal customs. Steane notes a trend in idealistic design and representation, such as Edward III’s children Blanche of the Tower and William of Windsor who died as infants yet are memorialized as children of about ten years old. The gilt-bronze gisant of Eleanor of Castile (d. 1290, the queen of the Eleanor Crosses) depicts a young, slim, stylish woman rather than a mother of fifteen and a married woman of 36 years. Her figure is richly dressed, and the garments and bedclothes have her heraldic crests molded on them. The figure once included a scepter, a symbol of royal power, and jewelry which are now missing. This public display of the royal family presented an idealized view of a healthy, active monarchy, thriving in their control of the country.

In the mid-13th century, realism became the popular style, with death masks and accurate features coming into vogue. Philippa of Hainault (d. 1369) whose gisant lies in France, is “no idealized woman but the realistic portrayal of a plain, rather stout, middle-aged lady, whose alabaster image still succeeds in arousing our sympathies” (Steane, 15). Even if she looked rather plain, the viewer couldn’t forget that this was the body of an anointed and crowned queen. Royal portraits in this time were more honest in their representations, however modern technology like dendrochonological analysis of panels have toyed with the production timeline of some surviving works. For example, the Royal Collections contain portraits of Henry V, Henry VI, and Richard III. These were long considered to be accurate depictions of these kings, yet analysis of the panels provide a date of c. 1518-1523, and that all three panels were likely sourced from the same tree. Portraits were a luxury, and a higher number of portraits indicated a higher amount of power or wealth. 15th century paintings of Elizabeth Woodville, queen to Edward IV, exist in the Royal Collections and in the stained glass of Canterbury Cathedral. Both images have similar features to contemporary descriptions of her appearance, and are likely accurate portrayals of her physicality.

The gisant of Catherine d’Alencon, d. 1462, marble, the Louvre.

In all of these depictions of individual appearance, the symbols of royal heritage and power were still paramount. The clothing, heraldry, and accoutrements befitting a ruler are included in these portraits, reminding the viewer to never forget the status of the subject. These accompanying symbols are present in the kings’ seals which Steane also compares, looking at their form and function. Seals were more mobile than statues or portraits, and served as a more daily reminder of royal power. European museums have healthy collections of seal matrices, the original molds of seals, and so the seals can be recreated and compared to surviving medieval examples. Steane presents the seals of Edward I, Richard I, Edward III, Henry II, and Henry IV. All of the seals use similar iconography with one side showing the king seated on a throne, crowned, holding the orb and scepter. The pose imitates the depictions of the Holy Roman Emperors and of Christ in Majesty in religious artwork from this period. Other symbols, such as the lion rampant, the fleur-de-lis, and the king’s titles surround the throne.

The founding charter for Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, with the seal of Louis IX.

On the reverse (counterseal), the king is mounted on a horse, wearing armor, and presenting an unsheathed sword. Seals were used to authenticate correspondence from the royal household, and to finalize government decisions. Both of these functions were an extension of the monarch’s power and the symbols in these seals serve to advertise the king’s roles as an anointed leader, the head of justice, and the commander-in-chief. A ruler might have multiple seals throughout his reign in order to keep up with current events; Steane presents two seals from Edward III and describes changes to the titles and imagery of Henry I and Stephen in the 12th century based on changes in their holdings and status.

The counterseal (reverse side) of Edward III’s Great Seal

While these examples are just a few ways a ruler could exert his position, many other objects survive which promote the king’s power and authority. Small symbols used in conjunction with monumental installations had a strong effect on the medieval mind, and helped maintain monarchs as The Kings.

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Go forth confidently then, you knights, and repel the foes of the cross of Christ with a stalwart heart. Know that neither death nor life can separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, and in every peril repeat, "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's." What a glory to return in victory from such a battle! How blessed to die there as a martyr! Rejoice, brave athlete, if you live and conquer in the Lord; but glory and exult even more if you die and join your Lord. Life indeed is a fruitful thing and victory is glorious, but a holy death is more important than either. If they are blessed who die in the Lord, how much more are they who die for the Lord!

How secure, I say, is life when death is anticipated without fear; or rather when it is desired with feeling and embraced with reverence! How holy and secure this knighthood and how entirely free of the double risk run by those men who fight not for Christ! Whenever you go forth, O worldly warrior, you must fear lest the bodily death of your foe should mean your own spiritual death, or lest perhaps your body and soul together should be slain by him.

Indeed, danger or victory for a Christian depends on the dispositions of his heart and not on the fortunes of war. If he fights for a good reason, the issue of his fight can never be evil; and likewise the results can never be considered good if the reason were evil and the intentions perverse. If you happen to be killed while you are seeking only to kill another, you die a murderer. If you succeed, and by your will to overcome and to conquer you perchance kill a man, you live a murderer. Now it will not do to be a murderer, living or dead, victorious or vanquished. What an unhappy victory--to have conquered a man while yielding to vice, and to indulge in an empty glory at his fall when wrath and pride have gotten the better of you!

But what of those who kill neither in the heat of revenge nor in the swelling of pride, but simply in order to save themselves? Even this sort of victory I would not call good, since bodily death is really a lesser evil than spiritual death. The soul need not die when the body does. No, it is the soul which sins that shall die.

The knight of Christ, I say, may strike with confidence and die yet more confidently, for he serves Christ when he strikes, and serves himself when he falls. Neither does he bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. If he kills an evildoer, he is not a mankiller, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil. He is evidently the avenger of Christ towards evildoers and he is rightly considered a defender of Christians. Should he be killed himself, we know that he has not perished, but has come safely into port.

Once he finds himself in the thick of battle, this knight sets aside his previous gentleness, as if to say, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord; am I not disgusted with your enemies?" These men at once fall violently upon the foe, regarding them as so many sheep. No matter how outnumbered they are, they never regard these as fierce barbarians or as awe-inspiring hordes. Nor do they presume on their own strength, but trust in the Lord of armies to grant them the victory.

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"May God console you! ... What saddens you ... is the fact that others have occupied the churches by violence, while during this time you are on the outside. It is a fact that they have the premises – but you have the Apostolic Faith. They can occupy our churches, but they are outside the true Faith. You remain outside the places of worship, but the Faith dwells within you. Let us consider: what is more important, the place or the Faith?The true Faith, obviously. Who has lost and who has won in the struggle – the one who keeps the premises or the one who keeps the Faith? True, the premises are good when the Apostolic Faith is preached there; they are holy if everything takes place there in a holy way ..."You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day. "Thus, the more violently they try to occupy the places of worship, the more they separate themselves from the Church. They claim that they represent the Church; but in reality, they are the ones who are expelling themselves from it and going astray. Even if Catholics faithful to Tradition are reduced to a handful, they are the ones who are the true Church of Jesus Christ."